An objective, valid, and reliable biochemical and/or hematological method that can be used for the early diagnosis of alcoholism has been sought for many years. An approach has been developed over the past four years mainly in an inpatient alcoholic and nonalcoholic population. This approach utilizes a form of pattern recognition (quadratic discriminant analysis) and commonly ordered blood chemistry batteries to successfully discriminate alcoholic from nonalcoholic patients. Application of this approach in a basically healthy outpatient population is a logical next step.